US Considers Directly Arming Syrian Rebels

US Considers Directly Arming Syrian Rebels

Post-Election, Obama More Willing to Intervene

by Jason Ditz, November 28, 2012

In July, Syrian rebel lobbyists reported that the Obama Administration had told them they would not be able to intervene in a serious way until after the November election. The vote’s over and now the meddling can begin in earnest.

That’s the message from US officials tonight, who say the president is now considering several options for deeper intervention into the ever worsening civil war, including the possibility of directly arming certain rebel factions.

Up until now the US has just been playing the role of facilitator, with the CIA smuggling other nations’ arms into Syria for them through various intermediaries. Officials say no decision has been made yet on whether or not to move directly into arms supplying.

If the decision is made, it will make the question of which factions to arm all the more difficult, as the US at present maintains at least a level of deniability in its current smuggling. With various groups vying to be the Western-friendly “umbrella,” and myriad secular and Islamist factions on the ground, it will be an uphill battle for the US to convince the world it isn’t arming terrorists.

...
Just as was the case with Iraqi Kurdistan during the war in Iraq, the Kurdish region in Syria is that country’s most stable region. Unlike with the Iraqi Kurds, however, the White House and State Department have turned a blind eye toward Syrian Kurdistan. When the State Department first assembled Syrian opposition figures to meet with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Kurds were not among them. Kurds are also underrepresented in the State Department’s more recent efforts to reconfigure the Syrian opposition.

The State Department’s reticence to work with Syrian Kurds has less to do with Syria and much more to do with Turkey. Here’s the problem: Most Syrian Kurds – up to 90 percent according to Kurds in Germany and Iraq – support the Democratic Union Party, better known by its Kurdish acronym, the PYD. The PYD is an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a group which has waged a decades-long insurgency in Turkey. The State Department has for more than two decades designated the PKK as a terrorist group. Initially, it did so for good reason: The PKK not only fought a military insurgency, but it also targeted civilians – school teachers, fellow Kurds who sought to provide an alternative to Abdullah Öcalan, and farmers who would not pay taxes to the group.
...
For American policymakers, however, the issue should not be Turkey: Rather it should be first U.S. national interest and second Syria. Today, the PYD controls not only territory in Syria, but also administers towns and local government. It does a good job, too. School function, utilities work, and security has increased. Furthermore, the PYD seems so far to stay true to its democratic rhetoric. Here, it lays in sharp juxtaposition to Masoud Barzani’s increasingly authoritarian Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in neighboring Iraq. Hence, it should not surprise that Syrian Kurds have redoubled their embrace of the PYD and turn their backs to Barzani, his party, and his tribe.

It is no secret that the longer the United States and its allies have remained on the sidelines of the Syria conflict, the more radical the Syrian opposition has become. The problem with “leading from behind,” for example, working through Qatar and Saudi Arabia, is that these countries privilege their own agendas, which include supporting elements far more radical than many in the West, let alone in Syria, are comfortable with. When the Muslim Brotherhood becomes the moderate minority, and al Qaeda affiliates become mainstream, the situation is truly bad.

It is against this backdrop that the U.S. refusal to work with the PYD becomes self-defeating. Whatever territory the PYD controls is space in which al Qaeda cannot operate openly. Turkish diplomats may complain if the United States reaches out to Syrian Kurds, but the Turks should have no standing to call any Kurd a terrorist when they regularly embrace Hamas and Hezbollah. In moments of crisis, it is essential that U.S. policy first and foremost privilege U.S. national security rather than carry water for Ankara. That putting U.S. security first would also advance peace in Syria is simply an added bonus.

Translation: The Kurds are friendly to Israel, and Turkey has become less friendly to Israel. Send money and arm the Kurds, and piss off the Turks. It will be good for "US National Security".

Twitter: B4Liberty@USAB4L"Foreign aid is taking money from the poor people of a rich country, and giving it to the rich people of a poor country." - Ron Paul
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Russians and Chinese need to help Assad more or make more rhetoric to scare Obama.

Overall, I fear that Assad is going to lose =|. He may be a bad guy, but I don't want to imagine what power hungry, islamic extremist might get into power under hte guise of being a pseudo-democratically elected president. Let's assume elections are rigged in USA, elections in these countries would surely be even more likely to be rigged.

The real question is: what's under the ground below Kurdish-controlled territory? Some kind of hydrocarbons, I'm sure. Syria has been in the plan for years.

We know the oil is pumping in the Kurdistan Region (formerly Northern Iraq).

Twitter: B4Liberty@USAB4L"Foreign aid is taking money from the poor people of a rich country, and giving it to the rich people of a poor country." - Ron Paul
"Beware the Military-Industrial-Financial-Corporate-Media-Government Complex." - B4L update of General Dwight D. Eisenhower
"Debt is the drug, Wall St. Banksters are the dealers, and politicians are the addicts." - B4L
"Totally free immigration? I've never taken that position. I believe in national sovereignty." - Ron Paul

The views and opinions expressed here are solely my own, and do not represent this forum or any other entities or persons.

So when apparently old Egypt, Russia, China and Iran do weapons smuggling, well, it's terrorism/genocide/etc.

When the US/UK/France/Israel/NATO, assassinates government officials, invade, arms rebels, creating terorrist factions, funneling military grade weapons, destroy cities/nations, and murder innocent civilians... that's prefectly legal, legit, and the failures are just labeled collateral damage all at the taxpayer's expense.

There are shadow powers far greater controlling our government... to approve/creating of such terror strategies throughout the world. It's obviouis Aleppo, Syria was the work of NATO funneling their gangs with weapons from Turkey.

I think tonight in Iraq there were bombings, where 42 lost their lives and 100's injured... US liberators of Democracy eh?

I hear drug production in Afghanistan is up to an all time high compared to before the US invaded the country. How's that happen with like 125K ISAF forces and a slew of mercenaries crawling around the country and drones flying over every sq mile?

"All eyes are opened, or opening to the rights of man, let the annual return of this day(July 4th), forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them."Thomas JeffersonJune 1826

If the rebels are succesful in overthrowing Assad, the US wants them to be friendly to the US and its allies. If we don't help them, that is less likely. This is the thinking behind arming them. Earlier on I saw an interview with one of the rebel commanders and he was complaining back then about the West (not just US) helping them so they were going to turn to whomever would be willing to aid them- including Islamic extremists.

I work for the Jewish National Democratic Council. They pay me $100,000 a year plus $100 a post. That is why almost all of my posts are on Israel and how great a country it is. Check my post history to verify this. My other goal is to shut down not just this site but the entire internet. I am more powerful than the NSA. I am a former British citizen currently working for MOSSAD. Or maybe it is the KGB/ FSB. I voted for Obama at least seventeen times.

If the rebels are succesful in overthrowing Assad, the US wants them to be friendly to the US and its allies. If we don't help them, that is less likely. This is the thinking behind arming them. Earlier on I saw an interview with one of the rebel commanders and he was complaining back then about the West (not just US) helping them so they were going to turn to whomever would be willing to aid them- including Islamic extremists.

So... why should we help them if they MAY turn to islamic extremist in the future anyways if they are willing to accept aid/help from islamic extremist (who wuold want something in return).

Seems like a bad deal... help us or we turn to al qaida for help!

Seems like pakistan.. give us money or maybe a nuke might fall into terrorist hands!.

Arm the rebels - hu? That sounds like a BRILLIANT plan! Lets do Afghanistan all over again! I'm sure they need some shoulder launched surface to air missiles!

-t

Public education is not education ... it is schooling.
Our military is not defense ... it is warmongering and empire building.
Government police do not protect ... they control.
Regulations do not regulate ... they protect the status quo.
Government banks do not distribute money based on effort ... it is gifted to close friends ... and some of it trickles down.

The result is war, poverty, fear, chaos, and hopelessness for most people with abundance for a few elite.
-Travlyr

Uncle Ho was our ally in WWII. He even asked for and got a copy of the Constitution from his OSS contacts to base his new country on. But the US backed the French and took over the war for them (while bringing in oil rigs and raping the country). Uncle Ho, had no choice but to turn to the communists for help. So much for spreading democracy...

-t

Public education is not education ... it is schooling.
Our military is not defense ... it is warmongering and empire building.
Government police do not protect ... they control.
Regulations do not regulate ... they protect the status quo.
Government banks do not distribute money based on effort ... it is gifted to close friends ... and some of it trickles down.

The result is war, poverty, fear, chaos, and hopelessness for most people with abundance for a few elite.
-Travlyr

If the Assads do fall, Syria's Kurds will be indebted to Mr Barzani. They could emerge as a major force in Syria, largely because of their numbers. They may also be better organised than other Syrian groups caught up in infighting. Syria's Kurds also sit on most of the country's oil resources.

Twitter: B4Liberty@USAB4L"Foreign aid is taking money from the poor people of a rich country, and giving it to the rich people of a poor country." - Ron Paul
"Beware the Military-Industrial-Financial-Corporate-Media-Government Complex." - B4L update of General Dwight D. Eisenhower
"Debt is the drug, Wall St. Banksters are the dealers, and politicians are the addicts." - B4L
"Totally free immigration? I've never taken that position. I believe in national sovereignty." - Ron Paul

The views and opinions expressed here are solely my own, and do not represent this forum or any other entities or persons.

So, how do we give our soldiers posing as "Syrian Freedom Fighters" guns, without also arming the militant groups we say we don't like, who we're fighting side by side with? Now that is a damn good question, and one they deserve to be agonized by for a long time since they created the damn mess. At the very least, they escalated it way out of their control, and the answer is.....possible further escalation?

"Perfect safety is not the purpose of government." - Ron Paul

Originally Posted by brushfire

"I was in the rain forest once, and it rained on me..."

Originally Posted by Carson

Ron Paul suggested a very good first step to the process of restoring sound money... It was beautiful. It left them all standing with their fiats out.

Originally Posted by acptulsa

'Excuse us, we'll be leaving now. Oh, and you don't mind if we just steal this Constitution before we go? You @#$%s aren't using it anyway...'

His major preoccupation was to conclude a treaty with France, which had exercised control over Syria for more than two decades. This was accomplished with British help, and by 1946 all foreign troops had evacuated. In 1947, Quwatli enacted an amendment that removed a one-term limit from the constitution and was reelected in 1948.
Using the pretenses of the Israeli victory over Arab forces in 1948 and popular dissatisfaction, Quwatli was overthrown in a CIAbacked military coup in March 1949. The CIA's purpose was to install someone who would allow the construction of the Quwatli opposed Saudi Arabian oil pipeline to be built, open a dialogue with Israel and rid the country of the Communist Party which Quawtli had tolerated. The CIA's candidate, Husni al-Za'im, who had been released from prison eight years earlier, having served time for corruption, rapidly implemented his US controller's program. Quwatli, after a short imprisonment, went into exile in Egypt, waiting for an opportunity to regain his position, while a series of coups paralyzed Syrian political life. Free elections under the auspices of the venerable Hashim al-Atassi finally took place in 1955, and Quwatli, at the head of the National Party (the successor to the National Bloc), was elected president.
By then, his post was largely ceremonial, however, and he had little influence on Syria's domestic politics thereafter. Towards the close of the decade, pan-Arab nationalism had swept Syria, and Quwatli presided over the union with Egypt, which formed the United Arab Republic, headed by Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser. By 1959, he had quarreled with Nasser and was forced into exile once again. This marked the end of his political career.
When he died in 1967 in Beirut, after the Syrian authorities initially almost refused to allow his body burial at home, he was interred in Damascus in a lavish state funeral, which adequately reflected the ambitious posturing that marked the course of his life.

US Ambassador Deane Roesch Hinton

US Foreign Service Officer, Deane Hinton, who was working in the US legation at the time of Quwatli's overthrow, insisted his dissenting view be put on record and presciently remarked that the coup was "the stupidest, most irresponsible action a diplomatic mission like ours could get itself involved in, and that we've started a series of these things that will never end." As a result Hinton was ejected from the plotter's group and ostracised. [3]

Deane R. Hinton (born March 12, 1923) is a career U.S. diplomat and ambassador. CFR member

Raising taxes also aggrieved businessmen, and Arab nationalists were still smouldering over his signing of a cease-fire with Israel, as well as his deals with US oil companies for building the Trans-Arabian Pipeline. He made a peace overture to Israel offering to resettle 300,000 Palestinian refugees in Syria, in exchange for border modifications along the cease fire line and half of Israel's Lake Tiberias.[5] Settling the refugees was made conditional on sufficient outside assistance for the Syrian economy. The overture was answered very slowly by Jerusalem and not treated seriously.

History
Construction of the Trans-Arabian Pipeline began in 1947 and was mainly managed by the American company Bechtel. Originally the Tapline was intended to terminate in Haifa which was then in the British Mandate of Palestine, but due to the establishment of the state of Israel, an alternative route through Syria (via the Golan Heights) and Lebanon was selected with an export terminal in Sidon. Oil transport through the pipeline started in 1950.

Since the 1967 Six-Day War, the section of the pipeline which runs through the Golan Heights came under Israeli control...

"All eyes are opened, or opening to the rights of man, let the annual return of this day(July 4th), forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them."Thomas JeffersonJune 1826

It seems that the intended end-game here is a Kurdish-led Syria, doing business with western oil companies and friendly to Israel. Not that doing business and being friendly with neighbors would be a terrible thing, but does the ends justify the means? And what type of oppression will be required to maintain that state?

Twitter: B4Liberty@USAB4L"Foreign aid is taking money from the poor people of a rich country, and giving it to the rich people of a poor country." - Ron Paul
"Beware the Military-Industrial-Financial-Corporate-Media-Government Complex." - B4L update of General Dwight D. Eisenhower
"Debt is the drug, Wall St. Banksters are the dealers, and politicians are the addicts." - B4L
"Totally free immigration? I've never taken that position. I believe in national sovereignty." - Ron Paul

The views and opinions expressed here are solely my own, and do not represent this forum or any other entities or persons.

Thank you very much for taking the time to post this epic response. There are reasons to why we pick and choose a country to "help." I feel for those oppressed in Syria as much as the next person but our involvement is not on moral grounds and is not random. We will undoubtedly choose a C.I.A. backed puppet or the country will be constantly warring with different warlords assuming and losing power. Either way, the country's average people will blame us and more 'extremists' will be bred. Who knows what new terror organization they are creating just by supplying the S.L.A. with weapons. (Which I am sure they already have.. flown out of another country with no ties to America- AK47s and such labeled as humanitarian aid) All of this shit needs to stop. Not now, yesterday. And people scratch their heads when planes are blown up and embassies attacked. History does repeat itself. And it seems we haven't learned a damn thing. I've been disappointed to see a few RPF members fall for the propaganda being spewed. We do this shit every year.

“The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.” --George Orwell

Yes we all know the end game here... it's those that are zombized by the US government's public relations departments aka US corporate media by airwaves or rag print.

Syria is the primary target of the Arab Spring scheme due to its support to Lebanese Hezbollah and Palestinian Hamas, who oppose and resist the Israeli occupation and expansions in the region. Besides weakening these resistance groups the collapse of Syrian Al-Assad's regime would open not only Kurdistan region, but the road to Iran and closing any Russian marine access to the Mediterranean Sea.

"All eyes are opened, or opening to the rights of man, let the annual return of this day(July 4th), forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them."Thomas JeffersonJune 1826

Syria has lashed out at Turkey’s “provocative” request to deploy NATO surface-to-air missiles on the countries’ shared border. The batteries may be installed in a matter of weeks, in a buildup that could further flare tensions in the turbulent zone.

Ankara has asked its NATO partners to station Patriot missile batteries along its southern border, claiming they are needed to protect Turkey’s national security. The system can shoot down aircraft and some missiles at a range of up to 600 kilometers.
The region has seen a number of episodes of cross-border mortar fire in recent months, though Syrian warplanes and gunboats were never reported attacking targets on Turkish territory.

The request was acknowledged by NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Thursday, who said that the possible deployment of the missiles was “purely defensive,” and would “serve as a deterrent to possible enemies even thinking of attacks”.
But the Syrian government sharply criticized the plan on Friday. A ministerial source told Syrian state TV that the deployment would be “a provocative step,” and that Syria would hold Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan “responsible for the militarization of the situation on the Syrian-Turkish border and increased tensions.”

Iran voiced similar criticisms, and sent parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani to visit to Damascus this week in a gesture of support for Tehran’s ally.
“The internal crisis in Syria cannot be solved through the deployment of such weapons,” Larijani said at a news conference in Beirut after his trip to Syria.

“The difference between us and the others when it comes to Syria is that the others want to impose democracy through weapons,” he added. “Iran cannot accept or support such a way.”

Russia also expressed concern that the military buildup along the Turkey-Syria border will only further complicate matters, tempting those who seek an escalation of violence in the tensions.

Turkish media speculates that the Patriot batteries will be delivered in a matter of weeks. Next week, a group of NATO military specialists will visit the sites to make assessments about potential deployments. The plan will then be reviewed by the US, Germany and Netherlands militaries, which agreed to provide the weapons.

Fears are being raised that the missiles would be used to create a de facto no-fly zone inside Syrian territory without a UN mandate. So far, Syrian air forces have been a key factor in Damascus’ fight against rebel troops.
Ankara has supported the rebels for months, allowing them to regroup inside Turkish territory and turning a blind eye to weapons smuggling.
Kurds take up arms against rebels

Turkey’s support for rebels is also viewed with suspicion by Syria’s Kurdish population, the majority of which lives in the northern border region. On Friday, two of the main Kurdish groups in Syria agreed to join forces to fight against anti-Assad Islamist militants, which attacked Kurdish areas this month.

The Democratic Union Party, known by its Kurdish initials PYD, and the Kurdish National Council (KNC) came to an agreement after a meeting in Arbil, the capital of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region. The two factions vowed to jointly defend the predominantly Kurdish towns in Syria and administer them together until an election can be held to form a local government.
The agreement followed fierce clashes between PYD militias and rebels from the Al-Nusra Front and allied Ghuraba al-Sham group in the Kurdish districts of Ras al-Ayn. The violence started in early November with a rebel attack on a small group of government soldiers in the area, escalating into a battle that killed at least five Kurds and 18 rebels.

Since then, Ghuraba al-Sham has called on other rebel groups to attack Ras al-Ayn and the provincial capital, Hasakeh. The rebels said that local Kurds, especially those from PYD, were enemies of the Syrian revolution.
PYD is seen as a close ally of Turkey’s Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a Kurdish force that has for decades been fighting a guerrilla war in Turkey in a bid for national autonomy. Ankara is hostile to both parties. Many Syrian Kurds believe that Turkey helped the Syrian rebels prepare their offensive at Ras al-Ayn, or even directly orchestrated it.

"All eyes are opened, or opening to the rights of man, let the annual return of this day(July 4th), forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them."Thomas JeffersonJune 1826

Kurds have been in that struggle for a long time. Some Kurds have lived in a semi-autonomous Kurdistan in Northern Iraq since the first Iraq war. There is a good chance that there will be a civil war in Iraq pitting Kurdistan against what remains of Iraq, for control of the oil areas in the middle.

Twitter: B4Liberty@USAB4L"Foreign aid is taking money from the poor people of a rich country, and giving it to the rich people of a poor country." - Ron Paul
"Beware the Military-Industrial-Financial-Corporate-Media-Government Complex." - B4L update of General Dwight D. Eisenhower
"Debt is the drug, Wall St. Banksters are the dealers, and politicians are the addicts." - B4L
"Totally free immigration? I've never taken that position. I believe in national sovereignty." - Ron Paul

The views and opinions expressed here are solely my own, and do not represent this forum or any other entities or persons.

If Assad had any sense he would go to Russia with his wife and cronies and a few billion in loot and claim asylum. He could then resume his career as an eye doctor and get on with his life and his wife can continue her life shopping in expensive malls.

The writing is on the wall now and the U.S is going to arm the rebels directly or indirectly and provide aerial bombardment just like they did in Libya.

If Assad stays then he risks his head being carried through the streets by these savages that the U.S are about to arm. Look what staying around did for Saddam and Gaddaffi. He should get out now if he has any sense rather than go down with his regime.

Kurds have been in that struggle for a long time. Some Kurds have lived in a semi-autonomous Kurdistan in Northern Iraq since the first Iraq war. There is a good chance that there will be a civil war in Iraq pitting Kurdistan against what remains of Iraq, for control of the oil areas in the middle.

since the US is considering arming the Syrian Rebels directly, how many of the rebels are Kurdish? Would this armement backfire and the Kurds then use these weapons at a later date to secure Northern iraq? I don't think they have the umph to take on Turkey but my gut has a weird feeling regarding the Kurds and Kurdisistan. It's to quiet. I mean, it would be another proxy war with Iran since the Kurdisitan Region also covers parts of Northern iran where they have reactors. Just my two bits.

since the US is considering arming the Syrian Rebels directly, how many of the rebels are Kurdish? Would this armement backfire and the Kurds then use these weapons at a later date to secure Northern iraq? I don't think they have the umph to take on Turkey but my gut has a weird feeling regarding the Kurds and Kurdisistan. It's to quiet. I mean, it would be another proxy war with Iran since the Kurdisitan Region also covers parts of Northern iran where they have reactors. Just my two bits.

The Kurdish areas would be considered a third party at this point in Syria. They have tried to keep the fighting out of their areas. The west has installed a Kurdish leader of Syria in the past, so they are certainly players in this deconstructed Syria.

...
The fear — already materializing in these hills — is that Syria’s ethnic groups will take up arms against one another in a bloody, post-Assad contest for power.

The Kurdish militias in northern Syria had hoped to stay out of the civil war raging in Syria. They were focused on preparing to secure an autonomous enclave for themselves within Syria should the rebels succeed in toppling the government. But slowly, inexorably, they have been dragged into the fighting and now have one goal in mind, their autonomy, which also means the Balkanization of the state.

“We want to have a Kurdish nation,” said Divly Fadal Ali, 18, who fled the fighting and was recently staying in a local community center here for Kurdish refugees. “We want our own schools, our own hospitals. We want the government to admit our existence. We want recognition of our Kurdish identity.”

These skirmishes between Kurds and Arabs take on a darker meaning for Syria as the rebels appear each day to gain momentum and the government appears less and less able to restore control. The rebels have taken over military bases, laid siege to Damascus and forced the airport to close.
But the rebels are largely Sunni Arabs, and the most effective among them are extremists aligned with Al Qaeda, a prospect that worries not only the West, but the Christians, Shiites, Druze — and Kurds — of Syria.

Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in Syria and make up nine percent of the country's population.[2] Syrian Kurds have faced routine discrimination and harassment by the government.[3][4]

"Syrian Kurdistan" (Kurdish: Kurdistana Sûriyê) is an unofficial name used by some to describe the Kurdish inhabited regions of northern and northeastern Syria.[5] The northeastern Kurdish inhabited region covers the greater part of Hasakah Governorate. The main cities in this region are Qamishli and Hasakah. Another region with significant Kurdish population is Kobanê (Ayn al-Arab) in the northern part of Syria near the town of Jarabulus and also the city of Afrin and its surroundings along the Turkish border.

Many Kurds seek political autonomy for the Kurdish inhabited areas of Syria, similar to Iraqi Kurdistan in Iraq, or outright independence as part of Kurdistan. The name "Western Kurdistan" (Kurdish: Rojavayê Kurdistanê) is also used by Kurds to name the Syrian Kurdish inhabited areas in relation to Kurdistan.[6][7][8] Since the Syrian civil war, Syrian government forces have abandoned many Kurdish-populated areas, leaving the Kurds to fill the power vacuum and govern these areas autonomously.[9]

Twitter: B4Liberty@USAB4L"Foreign aid is taking money from the poor people of a rich country, and giving it to the rich people of a poor country." - Ron Paul
"Beware the Military-Industrial-Financial-Corporate-Media-Government Complex." - B4L update of General Dwight D. Eisenhower
"Debt is the drug, Wall St. Banksters are the dealers, and politicians are the addicts." - B4L
"Totally free immigration? I've never taken that position. I believe in national sovereignty." - Ron Paul

The views and opinions expressed here are solely my own, and do not represent this forum or any other entities or persons.

If Assad had any sense he would go to Russia with his wife and cronies and a few billion in loot and claim asylum. He could then resume his career as an eye doctor and get on with his life and his wife can continue her life shopping in expensive malls.

The writing is on the wall now and the U.S is going to arm the rebels directly or indirectly and provide aerial bombardment just like they did in Libya.

If Assad stays then he risks his head being carried through the streets by these savages that the U.S are about to arm. Look what staying around did for Saddam and Gaddaffi. He should get out now if he has any sense rather than go down with his regime.

That will be the worst thing for him to do. If he cuts tail and runs, it will only confirm the western propaganda that he is a mad man who only cares for his welfare and just make it that much easier for the west to tell sell their propaganda about the next dictator they choose to depose. The Syria people need a unifying leader that they an all rally behind and right now, that leader is Assad.

He needs to continue this fight and stand to the western bullies and their thugs and try to do all he can to take as many of them down with him. This is the right thing to do. Because if he runs now, the Alawites he is going to leave behind will be slaughtered by the rebels and that not can drive a moral man crazy

The speed with which the US government moved to designate a fairly new group that has never attacked US interests and is engaged in fighting a regime that successive administrations have demonized is evidence of the strange bedfellows and overlapping agendas that make the Syrian civil war so explosive.

The State Department says Jabhat al-Nusra (or the "Nusra Front") is essentially a wing of Al Qaeda in Iraq, the jihadi group that flourished in Anbar Province after the US invaded to topple the Baathist regime of secular dictator Saddam Hussein. During the Iraq war, Sunni Arab tribesmen living along the Euphrates in eastern Syria flocked to fight with the friends and relatives in the towns along the Euphrates river in Anbar Province.